Green Man Festival 2012 - Glanusk Park, Brecon - 16th-19th August 2012 (Live Review)
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Wednesday, 22 August 2012 |
Written by David Ball
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Marking it's tenth anniversary in 2012, this year's Greenman was the biggest yet featuring over 400 acts spread across a variety of stages all in the spectacular surroundings of Glanusk Park in the Brecon Beacons national park. In true Welsh summer fashion it was quite wet and very muddy but that did little to dampen the spirits of the near 20,000 people who made the journey to the foot of Sugar Loaf mountain to the most spectacular festival site in the UK.
In the weeks leading up to the festival I regularly told people when they asked, ‘you’re going to Greenman? Who’s playing there then?’, that Greenman is about far more than just the line-up and is one of the few festivals on the circuit where the line-up, while always scattered liberally with brilliant bands, is largely irrelevant to how good a time you will have.
What makes Greenman stand out above it's peers on the smaller festival circuit is everything else that goes on around it. Everywhere you look there are families with children making their own entertainment with a variety of bubble creating devices, discovering new things in Einstein’s Garden or simply rolling down hills in the mud. If that sounds more like hard work than fun then the other side of the site has a field dedicated to various therapies where you can chill out in relative peace and quiet as well as large areas of open space at the top of the site to wander around and pay a visit to the Greenman himself.
Chai Wallah’s was extended this year and kept the party going from lunchtime for the early risers to the very early hours for the late finishers with as eclectic a collection of artists as you could wish for. Elsewhere the cinema tent has a good variety of choices from children’s films to nightly hammer horrors and a comedy and literature tent which goes from strength to strength every year, highlighted this year by sparkling performances by Holly Walsh and Steve Hall. Even the food and drink on site is well priced, especially when compared to other festivals and the quality is far higher than most.
Of course this is a music festival though and, yet again, Greenman delivered great performances by big names as well as introducing you to a few new favourites. There was a strong Thursday evening set of performances this year with H Hawkline kicking the weekend off in style and also including a brilliant set from Adam Buxton doing ‘The Best of BUG’, a special Greenman edition of his sell out Southbank show. Some of the weekend’s best moments come from the ‘in store’ sessions at the Rough Trade pop up tent. Cate Le Bon playing stripped back acoustically in front of just 20-30 people jammed into a tent is hypnotising while Benjamin Francis Leftwich and Willy Mason are also superb.
Friday sees Cardiff promoters Swn take over the Walled Garden stage for the day with a strong line-up of up-and-coming acts with my personal highlights Vadoinmessico and the wonderful Cate Le Bon who closes the stage. Elsewhere Cashier No.9 bring out the first, albeit short blast of sunshine, Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks are excellent as long as you used to like Pavement who Malkmus was lead singer for and Mogwai blast through their headlining set on the Mountain Stage as only they can, their textured instrumentals of glorious noise holding the crowd in awe. The very best set of the day was saved until last though with The Bees in the Far Out Tent at their very best and looking like they loved every minute.
 Saturday for many was the big day with the legendary Van Morrison headlining, although as agreed between him and the festival, he actually plays the evening slot at 7:30. Taking to the stage 10 minutes early and going straight into ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ his 85-minute set includes all his best known tracks and draws by a distance the biggest crowd of the weekend. Saturday shows off the diversity of Greenman too going from the beautiful layered harmonies of The Staves to fancy dressed, slightly chaotic Beth Jeans Houghton acoustic tenderness from Benjamin Francis Leftwich and the soulful crooning of Michael Kiwanuka. Performance of the day and for me of the whole weekend is Far Out headliner The Tallest Man On Earth who’s ability to hold the attention of a packed tent despite a stage set up consisting of just a microphone, his guitar and a spotlight says everything about the strength of his songs.
Sunday it feels as though the crowd has thinned, perhaps due to some choosing to pack up early but there is plenty going on. Alt-J in the afternoon draw an absolutely huge crowd to the Far Out tent and are followed by Islet who play to a far smaller crowd but go at it flat out regardless. They seem to divide opinion, I really quite like them but our group is split 50/50. Ghostpoet doesn’t do it for me but, in fairness I think that’s more that it’s not really my thing as the majority of the crowd are thoroughly enjoying themselves. tUnE-yArDs are another highlight of the weekend, with tribal drum beats combined with a remarkable vocal it’s quite random and very brilliant. The Walkmen are always excellent live and don’t disappoint before Feist closes up the Mountain Stage and the festival.
Greenman continues to go from strength to strength and most of the subtle changes are positive ones, my only niggle would be that the enlarged Chai Wallah’s being so close to the Far Out tent caused some unwanted noise bleed, particularly for some of the more tender performances. The way the site held up to the volume of rain was impressive, some areas got very muddy as you’d expect but the organisers did a terrific job of keeping the site accessible and safe. After reviewing last year I said I had a new favourite festival, this year only served to reinforce that feeling and I’m already looking forward to 2013.
Photo Credit: Kait Mordey
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